Ten essential books about contemporary queer life in America

Stray City by Chelsey Johnson
A cheeky novel about a queer girl’s secret dalliance with a cisgendered straight guy and the family that results, Chelsey Johnson’s debut novel is chock full of lived details of what it meant to be a queer girl in Portland, Ore., in the 1990s–many of which remain true today. A love letter to queer community that does not shy away from calling out scenes on their tendencies to be small-minded and clannish, this book sparkles, and innovates the form, flipping perspective towards the end of the book and using postcards, lists, and other ephemera to further the story.